President Trump, asked about the Strait of Hormuz by reporters at the White House Saturday, said: "We're talking to them. They wanted to close up the strait again — you know, as they've been doing for years — and they can't blackmail us." [1] The remark came the same day the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired on two Indian-flagged tankers in the strait and hours after Iran's Supreme National Security Council declared that Tehran would "enforce monitoring and control over transit through the Strait of Hormuz until the definitive end of the US blockade."

Iran's deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told the Associated Press the same afternoon that the United States "has not abandoned their maximalist position" and that face-to-face talks are off. Pakistan's foreign minister Ishaq Dar told local media that mediation is "being worked." CNN reported Sunday morning that Trump had announced a US delegation — special envoy Steve Witkoff, with Jared Kushner involved — was traveling to Islamabad for Tuesday talks, and that Trump had threatened on social media to "knock out every single power plant, and every single bridge, in Iran" if the Iranians did not accept his deal. [2] Iran International's reporting Sunday said Iran had not yet confirmed the Tuesday round.

The gap between Trump's "we're talking" and Khatibzadeh's "talks are off" is the operational question with three days left on the ceasefire. The paper's Saturday brief on Trump's weekend signal argued the rhetoric had already decoupled from any operational track. Sunday's gap is sharper: the president is saying a forum exists; the Iranian foreign ministry is saying the forum is not the one he thinks it is; Pakistan is saying something is being arranged. What the ceasefire expires into Wednesday will be determined by whichever side's framing the Tuesday round — if it happens — actually matches. [3]

-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington